1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle lamp provided in the corner portion of a vehicle and furnished with a mounting member which is projected from the outer surface of a lamp body so as to mount a lamp unit on a vehicle body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a lamp of the sort mentioned above, a lamp unit 1 including a lamp body 2 containing a light source and a lens 3 rounds out from the front side A to the side B of a vehicle body 5 as shown in FIG. 18. The lamp unit 1 on the side B of the vehicle body 5 is fixed to the side B thereof in such a way as to prevent the lamp unit 1 from slipping off by fitting a retaining pin 4 as a lamp-unit-mounting member projected from the lamp body 2 into a grommet 6 provided in the vehicle body 5, whereas the lamp unit 1 on the front side A of the vehicle body 5 is mounted on the vehicle body 5 by fixing the lamp unit 1 to the vehicle body 5 with a screw 7.
As retaining-pin structures, there are a first and a second known structure: in the first structure shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, a metal stud pin 4 is forced into a boss 2a formed in a synthetic-resin lamp body 2; and in the second structure shown in FIG. 20, a retaining pin 8 is integrally formed with a synthetic-resin lamp body 2.
In the first conventional retaining-pin structure (see FIG. 11), however, as the boss 2a for receiving the stud pin (retaining pin) 4 is projected from the lamp body 2, the problem is that the quantity H of projection of the retaining pin 4 from the outer surface of the lamp body 2 becomes large.
In the second conventional retaining-pin structure (see FIG. 20), further, as the material of the retaining pin 8 is limited to the same material as the frail material of the lamp body 2, it is needed to secure the strength of the retaining pin 8 by providing a reinforcing rib 9 on the base side of the retaining pin which may be damaged by bending because of stress concentration. Consequently, there also exist problems arising from the space narrowed by the overhanging reinforcing rib 9 and a substantially large quantity H of projection of the retaining pin 8 from the outer surface of the lamp body 2.
When the retaining pin is provided in the curved portion on the side of the vehicle body where it is hardly easy to secure the depth d of the lamp unit 1 as shown in FIG. 18 in particular, the boss 2a and the reinforcing rib 9 cause the depth d to be narrowed further and this also poses a problem of making the external appearance (the round-out side portion) of the lamp unattractive.
Another problem is that a mold structure tends to become complicated because an undercut portion C needs forming in a mold for producing the lamp body, depending on the direction in which the retaining pin is projected.